1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system for allowing music to be delivered via a network and a file to be shared via the network, an information processing apparatus contained in the information processing system and a computer program executed by the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Content delivery is widely performed using a network. An audio content delivery system is one example of content delivery. Audio content to be delivered is music composed by an artist, for example, and stored and managed in a server as digital audio data. A user owning an information processing terminal such as a personal computer installs application software (client software) having a client function for content delivery on the information processing terminal. After a proper transaction for purchasing, the user runs the client software and downloads the audio data as desired audio content. The data downloaded as the audio content is typically stored and managed on a storage device in the information processing terminal by the user. The user can thus enjoy the music using the client software to play the audio data as the audio content stored on the information processing terminal.
Also known as application software (editing software) is the one that retrieves audio data and video data as a material and arranges and edits the material to produce a new song. Recently, such application software having a simple to a complex structure is in widespread use among not only specialists for music production but also an ordinary person who do not work on music on a regular basis.
The editing software modifies read data as content (such as audio and video data) for editing. For example, sampling and mashup are performed on audio data so that part of existing music is easily acquired and edited. In practice, professional musicians have released a lot of music produced using such a technique. Reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2004-310464 and 2006-18753.